Monday, April 11, 2016

How to Maintain a Stitch Pattern While Shaping Part 1

I'm not a big fan of pattern difficulty ratings. I feel they are too vague. The only knitters they really work for are the experienced ones. They are the knitters who have the knowledge to understand what descriptions like "Easy: Projects using basic stitches, repetitive stitch patterns, simple color changes, and simple shaping and finishing" really mean. What I think a basic stitch is and what another knitter thinks it is, varies widely based on their previous knitting experience. I list an experience level in my patterns, but only because it's become a standard to do so and Ravelry and Patternfish make me.

I've already had a test knitter suggest I up a difficultly rating on a sample she knit for me. I did because I trust her judgement and she is an amazing knitter. I list the skills required in each pattern so knitters can more easily determine if the pattern is one they want to try. Many of my patterns include the skill: maintaining
a stitch pattern while working shaping.

Whenknitting your first projects, often a scarf, which has no shaping, you continue knitting on the same number of stitches you cast on. Every row of the stitch
pattern will begin and end as written in your pattern. Once you are ready to move on to other projects you will
increase or decrease stitches to create shaping and patterns will say "while maintaining stitch
pattern...".
Now you have additional stitches outside of the pattern repeat. With some stitches it is very clear, you can look at your
knitting and easily see where you are within the stitch pattern. An example would be cable stitches worked in straight vertical columns. Patterns do try to give specific directions for every detail,
but sometimes the best option is to establish a stitch
pattern and have the knitter keep it going. Often this is impacted by the size range. The more sizes, the more instructions and pattern pages which would be required to detail every size individually.

It's important to learn to understand your stitch pattern and understand by
looking at your knitting what comes next. Most knitters refer to this as reading your knitting. Your first opportunity to do this is on your swatch. When you knit the swatch, pay attention not just to following the stitch instructions but also to how each stitch relates to the ones on either side and below. Chart instructions naturally encourage knitters to understand this relationship, which is why they are so popular.

As you can see in the above photo, it can get much more complicated. Essentially what you are being asked to do is to think ahead of the knitting and understand how future rows relate to the row you are currently knitting and adding or removing stitches from. I'll be continuing this topic in future, so please check back for more.

About Me

email contact robinknits(AT)gmail(dot)com
I've been knitting my whole life. I don't even remember learning. I started making garments for myself in my teens and then explored sewing, tailoring and millinery. I want to teach knitters about fit and flattery and turn them into fashion stars!
On my blog you will find lots of interviews with knitting industry professionals, how to tutorials and a variety of posts about what's going on in the knitting world.
I love to come out and speak at shops and guilds. Here's what the Downtown Knit collective said after one of my talks:
“Robin Hunter’s inspiring talk, “The Barbie Factor,” left everyone in a feel-good mood at the conclusion of the May meeting. Heads were nodding in agreement all around ... as she tackled a multi-faced problem faced by many knitters—why don’t we knit for ourselves? She touched on many topics including fashion, body image, media and how it all relates back to our knitting.”
You can see my patterns on http://www.patternfish.com/des/robin_hunter and you can find me on Ravelry at http://www.ravelry.com/people/knittingrobin
My YouTube channel is here:http://www.youtube.com/user/robinknits?feature=mhee